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LATEST NEWS

Esper says US will seek Japan's efforts to resolve GSOMIA issue: Cheong Wa ...
Wealthy South Korea should pay more for keeping US troops: Esper
Japan, S. Korean business groups discuss ways to cool tensions
[Newsmaker] High Court sides with K-pop singer, orders consulate to reconsi...
Penguin character Pengsoo’s popularity excites stock investors
S. Korea shakes up batting order for crucial match vs. Mexico
BTS records $116.6m in sales from 'Love Yourself: Speak Yourself' tour
Namsangol Hanok Village incorporates modern artifacts inspired by Korean tr...
Ex-Justice Minister Cho refuses to open up during questioning
Indie publishers seek synergy at annual book festival

Nov 15, 2019 Social affairs

[Newsmaker] High Court sides with K-pop singer, orders consulate to reconsider visa denial

The Seoul High Court on Friday upheld a Supreme Court decision in favor of Korean American Steve Seung Jun Yoo, also known as Yoo Seung-jun, requiring the South Korean Consulate in Los Angeles to reconsider its 2017 decision to deny the former K-pop singer an F-4 residency visa. With the exception of a brief visit, the Korean-born singer and actor has been banned from his birth country since 2002, when he became a naturalized US citizen and evaded his mandatory military duty in Korea.Korea&rsquo

Police: Lee Chun-jae is behind all Hwaseong murders

SUWON -- Police said Friday they have reached a provisional conclusion that all 10 of the Hwaseong serial murders were committed by the same man.Lee Chun-jae, who is serving life imprisonment for a similar murder, admitted in October his involvement in 10 crimes linked to the serial murder case after DNA tests identified him as the key suspect in at least five cases.Ten women were killed in the rural village of Hwaseong, south of Seoul, between 1986 and 1991 in the country's worst serial murder

Nov 15, 2019
Social affairs
S. Korea to conduct anti-fine dust exercise Friday

The South Korean government will conduct an anti-fine dust exercise this week in an effort to minimize damage from the air pollution, officials said Thursday. The exercise, slated for Friday, will involve the presidential office, a few ministries and 17 major city and provincial governments to test policy measures to cope with the fine dust air pollution which tends to be worse from December to March. "The exercise is aimed at comprehensi

Nov 14, 2019
Social affairs
Joint probe launched into weapons lab explosion in Daejeon

Authorities are investigating an explosion at a state-run weapons development facility in Daejeon that killed one and injured six others on Wednesday.The Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency said Thursday that it has set up an on-site probe team with the fire agency, the National Forensic Service and other investigative agencies, to identify the cause of the chemical explosion at the Agency of Defense Development. The explosion occurred around 4 p.m. on Wednesday inside the rocket fuel lab l

Nov 14, 2019
Social affairs
[News Focus] Meager birthrate expected to undermine Korea’s GDP

SEJONG -- The number of South Koreans aged 14 or under accounted for only 12.5 percent of the total population as of October 2019, according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety.The demographic database held by the ministry includes classification into three groups -- those aged up to 14, those aged 15-64 (called the working-age population) and those aged 65 or over (the senior population).The data showed that the percentage of the youngest generation has continued to fall over the past decade

Nov 14, 2019
Social affairs
[Newsmaker] Koreans sit for national college entrance exam

Nearly half a million people sat for the annual state-administered college entrance exam Thursday, with the number of test-takers marking an all-time low. The College Scholastic Aptitude Test, locally known as Suneung, began at 1,185 exam venues across the country at 8:40 a.m. and ended at 5:40 p.m.　A total of 482,348 people had sat for the exam for academic year 2020 as of 2:20 p.m. A total of 548,734 people applied to take the nine-hour back-to-back exams, down 46,190 from the

Nov 14, 2019
Social affairs
What’s in a name? Ex-president’s confidante wants media to use her new name

Former President Park Geun-hye’s confidante Choi Seo-won, better known as Choi Soon-sil, has officially requested that the Korean media stop using her old name, saying that doing so amounts to defamation. According to Choi’s lawyer on Wednesday, Choi sent letters to 93 media outlets in South Korea, asking that they use her new name when reporting about her. Choi reportedly changed her name from Soon-sil to Seo-won in February 2014. Choi, who is in prison, faces an ongoing trial

Nov 14, 2019
Social affairs
Prosecutors grill ex-Justice Minister

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk was questioned for eight hours by prosecutors Thursday.Cho appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning on Thursday morning, a month after his resignation as justice minister and three days after his wife’s second indictment on additional charges.“Given all charges against me are not true, I consider it unnecessary for me to address prosecutors’ questions one by one. I intend to reveal what’s true at the

Nov 14, 2019
Social affairs
One dead, another in coma after inhaling toxic gas from waste oil tank

One man was killed and another injured after inhaling toxic gas in an offshore waste oil tank on Wednesday, the coast guard said.The incident occurred in an oil storage structure docked near a shipbuilding yard in the southeastern port city of Busan. Officers from the Busan Coast Guard found the chief executive of an oil waste collection company, identified by his surname, Jeong, and a worker, surnamed Lee, unconscious inside the tank.Jeong in his 30s died later in hospital and Lee, 62, is

Nov 13, 2019
Social affairs
Prosecution requests $6,000-fine for Mongolian judge over sexual abuse charges

The Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office said Wednesday that it asked the court withhold trial and instead fine a Mongolian judge accused of groping a Korean flight attendant roughly $6,000. Prosecutors said Mongolian judge Dorj Odbayar was summarily indicted because he admitted to most of his charges during a flight from Ulaanbaatar to Incheon on Oct. 31. He was also accused of verbally abusing a Mongolian crew member but was cleared because the crew member was reluctant to press charges.

Nov 13, 2019
Social affairs
[Newsmaker] First hearing in ‘comfort women’ case held three years after lawsuit filed

The first hearing in a lawsuit brought against the Japanese government by former victims of Japanese military sexual slavery was held Wednesday, nearly three years after the suit was filed. The Japanese government, which had delayed court proceedings by refusing to accept South Korean court-issued documents demanding its presence in court, was absent from the hearing at the Seoul Central District Court. Eleven survivors and 10 bereaved family members representing six other victims file

Nov 13, 2019
Social affairs
1 killed, 5 injured in Daejeon lab explosion

At least one person was killed and five others were injured in an explosion at a state-run scientific lab in Daejeon on Wednesday, local fire authorities said.The explosion occurred at 4:24 p.m. at a lab at the Agency for Defense Development in the city 160 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the officials. The injured people were sent to a nearby hospital. The one casualty was reported to be a researcher in his 40s.Around 120 fire authorities have been dispatched to the site to handle the a

Nov 13, 2019
Social affairs
1 killed, 5 injured in Daejeon lab explosion

At least one person was killed and five others were injured in an explosion at a state-run scientific lab in Daejeon on Wednesday, local fire authorities said.The explosion occurred at 4:24 p.m. at a lab at the Agency for Defense Development in the city 160 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the officials. The injured people were sent to a nearby hospital. The one casualty was reported to be a researcher in his forties.Around 120 fire authorities have been dispatched to the site to handle t

Nov 13, 2019
Social affairs
Sexual minorities, activists call for legalization of gay marriage

Some 40 gay couples and rights activitists held a press conference in front of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in Seoul on Wednesday, calling for legalization of same-sex marriage and filed a petition with more than 1,000 signatures with the human rights panelThe coalition of civic groups filing the petition shed light on intolerance toward same-sex relationships.“The basic rights to marriage and family life guaranteed by the Constitution are not protected for gay couples in

Nov 13, 2019
Social affairs
[News Focus] Will K-pop singer Steve Yoo be allowed into South Korea?

Once a K-pop icon, Steve Seung Jun Yoo, also known as Yoo Seung-jun, is ever closer to entering South Korea again for the first time in more than 16 years.With the exception of a brief sojourn in 2003, the Korean American singer and actor has not been able to set foot in his motherland since he chose to become a US citizen, which immediately relieved him of his duty to serve in the military in Korea. Korea’s Military Manpower Administration, or MMA, viewing his US naturalization in 20

Nov 13, 2019
Social affairs

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